Who will change Kolkata’s skyline? For sure it’ll not be the doing of one or 2 entities. But if there’s one company that will corner the lion’s share of the glory, it must be the DLF India.
In today’s TT, the sum of money flaunted as DLF’s proposed investment in and around the city for next 7 years is a mind-defying Rs.1 lakh crore.
As AS Minocha, the chairman of DLF Commercial Developers Limited says, “Our second largest land bank after Karnataka is in Bengal. The integrated Dankuni township, to be spread across 4,840 acres, alone will account for Rs.50,000 crore.“
The other half of the kitty is earmarked for IT, residential, hospitality and retail constructions. For example, the Tower 1 of Rs.350 crore 3-tower IT park in Rajarhat is completed recently and has been taken over by IBM.
When such frenetic and gigantic real estate projects shape up in the city, won’t that mean pushing the road infrastructure to the brink? Your guess is as good as mine especially since the city roads amount to not more than just 6% of the total area (Delhi roads occupy nearly 17% of the total city area). See my related story, Dare you live in Kolkata!
The government is planning to unclog roads with the assistance of 5 flyovers and widening 9 crucial roads in the city. Refer TT story.
That may seem a reprieve. But then isn’t the same government planning similar things for long, long time with apparently no take-off on the ground?
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